World leaders failed to agree on increasing the resources of the International Monetary Fund, dashing the hopes of European governments keen to tap more foreign aid to buttress their crisis-fighting efforts.
Governments are awaiting further details of Europe’s week- old rescue package before they commit cash, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today on the final day of a Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France.
The reluctance of the leaders of the world’s biggest economies to immediately channel funds to the euro area reflects frustration with Europe’s failure to end a crisis that sparked again this week, with Greece’s government lurching towards collapse and Italy facing intensifying pressure to restore fiscal order.
European stocks and the euro dropped and U.S. stock futures fell after Merkel’s comments. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.3 percent to 241.4 at 12:03 p.m. in London, after earlier rising as much as 0.6 percent. The euro erased gains and was little changed at $1.3822.
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